I've been in Colinton Dell twice this week with birdwatching groups. Both times we've had really good views of a pair of dippers gathering nesting materials and flying to what seems like a nest site under a bridge! Dippers are fascinating birds, I could watch them all day, they'll always so busy, flying from rock to rock and diving into the water, where you can sometimes see them swimming (though their brown and white plumage blends perfectly into a rushing peaty river like the Water of Leith.)
Both groups got ample opportunity to learn some birdsong as chaffinches, robins, blue tits, great tits were in full voice.
Today, we were also lucky to have a large group of long tailed tits playing in a group near us.
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You have DIPPERS?!!! You lucky people! Conditions must be right! Oh you are so lucky - we are a fan of the long tailed tit also, we have a mob just over the way from us!!! :-D
ReplyDeleteI second that: you are damned lucky! Thanks for sharing them, though.
ReplyDeleteI love Dippers. We used to see them regularly when we lived in Yorkshire.
ReplyDeleteI have seen a lot of birds but never Dippers! Of course I doubt they reside in the high desert terrain of Utah! I have a flock of robins, magpies, a pair of Clark's Nutcrackers, several pair of mourning doves, redtailed hawks, a crow, the occasional runaway cockatiel!I have a pair of scrub jays which make me very happy. And a woodpecker that I need to get out the binoculars to see better. We have Gambel's quail and barn swallows, starlings, wrens, finches, and sparrows. I try to keep our little acre full of brush and overgrown trees and grasses just for the habitat. Too many subdivisions have chased out the wildlife. I had a doe in the yard this fall, a fox and a pair of raccoons who feast on the cat food. There is mink too..escaped years ago from the mink farms that used to dot the landscape. They are all gone. I have seen mountain bluebirds..so cute and there is a little waterbird that resides in the springs up the canyon. I have watched for hours jumping in and out of the cold water to get bugs. We have ducks and Canadian geese too in the pond across the way. Oh and the pelicans on Utah lake..wow. Seagulls too. Pheasant...I go on!!! Forgive me!oh the best of all..Sandhill cranes, blue herons, and egrets at the lakes. And golden and bald eagles.
ReplyDeleteI'll bet those walks are interesting. Too bad we are so far apart. The birds are starting to be active here, too.
ReplyDeleteYou certainly have the most wonderful walks Juliet. Wish I could be there to take a walk too.
ReplyDeletexx, shell
Too cold to nest here yet ... soon!
ReplyDeleteMore dippers next year!
Sounds like another great expedition or two! Always exciting to make discoveries and share them.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see dippers...
ReplyDeleteBit early for dippers nesting but probably a bit warmer under a bridge Juliet. I read somewhere where all members of the blackbird family tend to carry nesting material early. (are dippers in the blackbird family I wonder?)
ReplyDeleteWe get long tailed tits on our fat balls - they seem to include our bird table in their trawl up the hedge.
Ah! Spring! I am still waiting for the first signs here. :)
ReplyDeleteThat's exciting that the dippers are nesting. This is a great time of year with change in the air and new life to come.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like I'm the only one who doesn't know what Dippers are!
ReplyDeleteI love all the tits in whichever colour and shape they come in. Unfortunately Australia is not a place to see them.
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